Spot the differences at the dinner party or barbeque. So, what do you do Joe?. [You must start with ‘so’ if you are in some kind of technology role yourself]
‘I am in IT, I work for Techno’ vs. ‘I am in Techno, I work in IT
‘I am a medical doctor, I work in PharmaTer’ vs. ‘I work for PharmaTer as a medical doctor’.
‘I am a hedge fund manager, I work for InvestSmart’ vs. ‘You know InvestSmart? I work there as a hedge fund manager’
‘I am an accountant, I work for GoodsMart’ vs ‘I am in GoodsMart, in finance, I am accountant by training’
‘I am a lawyer, I work for BankGlobal’ vs ‘I work in BankGlobal as a corporate lawyer’.
Imagine many other alternatives on any other function. The differences are not simple anecdotal ways of expressing the same. The expressions are not the same. In one type, the dominance is the professional tribe (IT, medic, hedge fund, accountant, lawyer). In the other type, the company (Techno, PharmaTer, InvestSmart, GoodsMart, BankGlobal) is the dominant source of belonging. Both are compatible, for sure. But, if I were the CEO of any of these companies, I’d rather have my people referring to the professional tribe after, not before referring to the company.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the tribal-professional sense of belonging. But when projected upfront as my real persona, it means that its power, significance, and identity is stronger than those of the employer’s itself. Tribe 1, company brand nil.
I have found two types of clients. Those who don’t get this, (‘don’t see the problem’) and those who care about ‘the order of things’. The later are the ones who also care about culture. Since senior leaders, and therefore CEOs, are curators of their culture, it’s clear which ones ‘see’ the differences and have a preference for the company brand
‘Seeing’ is the first step to interpreting and then doing something. Do you know what Joe, of your company, says when asked? I wish the Employee Engagement people included this…
A former European president of Toshiba told me of his shock on his first trip to the USA. He himself introduced himself as (literally translated): ‘Toshiba’s HR department’s Suzuki am’. However, his new American clients tended to say things like: “Hi, I’m Sam Smith, I’m an engineer and I’m working for HP right now”. The order mattered for him and he formed his ideas of personal priorities and company loyalty based on that. Me, me, me. Even the grammar tells us the American might soon be moving on.
Just to take this concept a step further … Does the fact that we introduce ourselves as “I’m Sam Smith” (as Bill has used above) before company/ role or before role/ company raise an ignored issue?
People have been people long before they have been (eg) engineers or (eg) employees of HP . But human nature/ hard-wired human behaviour is mostly ignored/ down-played by companies.
Many of the issues that Leandro writes about relate to companies failing to treat people as respected and valued humans before they treat them as valued employees. It’s often the other way around or maybe even just as employees
This difference is also a very subtle contextual one. Thoughts?